ABSTRACT
The colonial authorities considered the categorizing of people their prerogative, and usually based it on legal written information on ancestry. However, in some cases, people of mixed ancestry could themselves influence how they were classified by providing all sorts of unwritten information. This chapter aims to compare how Eurasians used legal and unwritten information regarding citizenship in their own interests during the decolonization processes of British India, the Dutch East Indies, and French Indochina. It highlights similarities and differences between legislation and ‘unique policies’ while also giving attention to the agency of Eurasians. Decolonization processes present a strong case in the debate on information and power, since the colonial system could only exist because of a continuous interaction between the two. Information on ancestry, formulated as ‘race’ was embodied in colonial discourse, which was first and foremost created by colonial rulers.
